Centralized cryptocurrency Exchange Bybit is struggling to keep up with withdrawals following a hack that swept over $1.4 billion in Ethereum and associated assets early on Friday.
In a live stream after the incident, BYBIT co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou said the company “has experienced a major withdrawal in the last two hours.”
However, he added that there are thousands of pending withdrawals the company is still working on as liquidity needs to be moved. Zhou told viewers that it would work through pending withdrawal requests within “a few hours” and that the company had no plans to suspend the withdrawal.
Coingecko’s data shows Bybit has seen spot trading volumes of over $8 billion over the last 24 hours. This is a surge of nearly 46% on the last day. The chart shows the spikes of a large volume after the attack disclosure.
Zhou explained that instead of buying Ethereum to help the entire customer, Bibit is seeking a bridge loan to help them close the hole after the funds are swiped.
Ben Sai’s live stream on the latest ETH Wallet Incident is alive and alive now. https://t.co/mbwd9ubgil
– BYBIT (@BYBIT_OFFICIAL) February 21, 2025
Previously, Zhou wrote to X that Bybit can “cover the losses” even if it is unable to recover stolen funds with the help of law enforcement. During the live stream, Zhou said the stolen funds represent about 1/20 of the assets under management by Bybit.
Editor’s Note: This story is broken and will be updated with additional details.
Discover more from Earlybirds Invest
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
